Background: Both pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic interventions are used to treat neuropsychiatric symptoms in persons with dementia.
Purpose: To summarize the comparative efficacy of pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic interventions for treating aggression and agitation in adults with dementia.
Data sources: MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, CINAHL, and PsycINFO between inception and 28 May 2019 without language restrictions; gray literature; and reference lists scanned from selected studies and systematic reviews.
Study selection: Randomized controlled trials comparing interventions for treating aggression and agitation in adults with dementia.
Data extraction: Pairs of reviewers independently screened studies, abstracted data, and appraised risk of bias.
Data synthesis: After screening of 19 684 citations, 163 studies (23 143 patients) were included in network meta-analyses. Analysis of interventions targeting aggression and agitation (148 studies [21 686 patients]) showed that multidisciplinary care (standardized mean difference [SMD], -0.5 [95% credible interval {CrI}, -0.99 to -0.01]), massage and touch therapy (SMD, -0.75 [CrI, -1.12 to -0.38]), and music combined with massage and touch therapy (SMD, -0.91 [CrI, -1.75 to -0.07]) were clinically more efficacious than usual care. Recreation therapy (SMD, -0.29 [CrI, -0.57 to -0.01]) was statistically but not clinically more efficacious than usual care.
Limitations: Forty-six percent of studies were at high risk of bias because of missing outcome data. Harms and costs of therapies were not evaluated.
Conclusion: Nonpharmacologic interventions seemed to be more efficacious than pharmacologic interventions for reducing aggression and agitation in adults with dementia.
Primary funding source: Alberta Health Services Critical Care Strategic Clinical Network. (PROSPERO: CRD42017050130).